SSC Year in Review: Highlights of 2020
January 2020
SSC/UCS Conversations at the Meetinghouse, Jan. 3rd, potluck dinner (organized by Ellen Bordman), four speakers:
Bri McAlevey, SSC: transitioning to more of a plant-based diet to reduce our carbon footprints
Paul Lauenstein, SSC: the Sharon Solar Network and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels
Karen Stein, Director of Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, habitat loss in our area
Kathi Mirza, SSC, MAC, Mass DEP: why and how to reduce waste
Educate Sharon residents and committees about the hazards of installing artificial turf (Debbie Tatro)
Work with school and town officials to fill the Sharon Public School Recycling Coordinator position (Kathi Mirza)
February 2020
Special report from Silas Fyler, Member of the Town’s Energy Advisory Committee, regarding solar arrays and Sharon Power Choice (Kathy Farrell)
STEAM night at CSS, Wednesday, February 12th (Elana Katz Rose)
Reusable bag tabling event at Shaws (Aneeza Ahmad)
TP Extravaganza (Kathy Farrell)
March
Presenters: Andrew Flowers and Ted Philips, candidates running for the State Representative in the 8th Norfolk District, which includes Sharon and parts of Stoughton, Walpole, and Mansfield, SSC meeting, March 4, 2020. (Cheryl Schnitzer)
Local Environmental Action 2020, Saturday, March 7, 2020, at Northeastern University (Dave Slater, Paul Lauenstein, and Kathy Farrell)
April 2020
Event: watch Story of Plastic and attend Zoom discussion, part of national movement for Earth Day, Discovery Channel (Debbie Tatro, Kathi Mirza, and others)
SSC Facebook group, eight weeks of challenges and prizes to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and Sharon Green Day 2020: collectively create a list of fifty sustainable actions we practice or support; vegetarian and vegan—share your recipes and encouragement and be more healthful; backyard composting and curbside pickup with Black Earth Compost; litter clean-ups; solar energy; and gardening 101 (Lauren Goloboy, Cheryl Schnitzer, Ellen Bordman, Bri McAlevey, Kathy Farrell, Cherry Chun, Ricky Stern, and others)
Coinciding with week of litter clean up, “Sponsor a Street” initiative: encourage people to sign up and clean up on a schedule. Also, worked with the town to clean up secret party sites along some trails. (Tommy Goloboy and Lauren Goloboy)
Encourage folks to their state representative and state senator, and ask them to please do whatever they can to help bring the We the People Act (H.3208 and S.2163) to a vote this session. It only takes a few minutes. You can find contact information for your state representative and your state senator by entering your home address at: https://malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator (Paul Lauentein)
May 2020
Sharon Green Day, Saturday May 2nd, 12:00-4:00 PM, Sharon High School (SSC Green Day Committee Chair, Nivedi Das) [Canceled due to COVID-19]
Silas Fylar awarded the Lynn Wolbarst Sustainability Award (Sandra Widland and others)
2020 School Art Contest – Jeffrey Xiang and Shamama Sirroon tied for First place, and Elaine Fortier wins the second place prize (Ricky Stern)
June 2020
Speaker, Judeth Van Hamm presented: “Envision Solar Powered Transportation leading to a Sustainable World Climate” – Vision for a solar powered personal rapid transit system in Massachusetts, June 3, 2020. (Cheryl Schnitzer)
2020 SSC High School Sustainability Achievement Award: $250 to Sebastian Armstrong for his successful efforts in organizing the September school climate strike and his ongoing commitment to work on behalf of a sustainable future by addressing the climate crisis; $100 to Jacob Dubin for his work as a Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) student ambassador to promote and carry out a “plogging” initiative. (Nivedi Das, Ellen Bordman, Bri McAlevey)
SSC Roving Reporter: write-up about Paul Lauenstein (Charlotte Pototsky)
Tour of athletic fields in Sharon with sports turf expert, Ian Lacey, to discuss cost-effective means of upgrading the quality of Sharon’s athletic fields for the benefit of Sharon’s youth who participate in organized sport, June 18, 2020. (Paul Lauenstein, Ellen Bordman, Colin Barbera, Simone Tamkin, Aaron Tamkin, and others)
Facebook Group SSC Super Challenge, June 16th – July 7th: Raffle two starter kits for Black Earth Compost ($150 value/each to keep or give a friend)…we reached 300 households in Sharon, so the price for curbside pickup went down by 40% for everyone!
July 2020
SSC Board Members 2020-2021:
President: Cheryl Schnitzer
Vice President: Ellen Bordman
Treasurer: David Slater
Secretary/Clerk: Marlene Arnold
Asma Abdullah
Stuart Brown
Nivedi Das
Tim Humphreys
Paul Lauenstein
Bri McAlevey
Kathi Mirza
Helen Poynton
Ricky Stern
Simone Tamkin
Debbie Tatro
Sandra Widland
SSC Committee Chairs 2020-2021:
Communications (Chair: Ellen Bordman); Democracy (Chair: Paul Lauenstein); Education (Chair: Nivedi Das); Energy and Climate Change (Chair: Artie Crocker); Food (Chair: Bri McAlevey); Communities-Interfaith-Multicultural (Chair: Asma Abdullah); Fundraising (Chair: Tim Humphreys); Strategic Planning (Chair: Sandra Widland); Zero Waste (Chair: Debbie Tatro); Water (Chair: Paul Lauenstein); Youth (Chair: Aneeza Ahmad)
Certificates of Appreciation awarded to: Ruby Gu, Debbie Tatro, Linda Orel, Peg Arguimbau, Greg Meister
Postcarding with Reclaim Our Vote
Roving Reporter: after going to the Sharon student-organized rally in June for the Black Lives Matter movement, she interviewed folks about their views about sustainability and its relationship to racism (Charlotte Pototsky)
Litter clean-up, co-sponsored by SSC and NepRWA, 7/18/2020, along Beaver Brook, near the Sharon train station (Ellen Bordman, David Slater, Debbie Tatro, Helen Poynton, Charlotte Pototsky, and others)
August 2020
Distribute/sell reusable SSC bags with student artwork to support SSC youth programs and awards
SSC Youth High School Energy Internship Program, including five SHS students and five adult mentors
September 2020
Speaker: Kirstie Pecci, director of the Zero Waste Project and a Senior Fellow at Conservation Law Foundation
Organize efforts and raise funds to improve maintenance of safe-playable athletic fields for our student athletes
October 2020
Warrant Article 18: Citizen Petition—artificial turf field three-year moratorium, Town Meeting, Oct. 12th
Webinar, “Shining a Spotlight on Environmental Justice: How Climate Change, Public Health, and Racism Intersect,” co-sponsored by SSC, Sharon Racial Equity Alliance (SREA), and Temple Sinai, Oct. 15th, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHs7pGxZ_ws
November 2020
Speakers: Elisa Van Dijk and and Amber Marcus-Blank, Sunrise Blue Hills, explained their work to combat governmental inaction towards the environment and climate change through public advocacy to create long lasting grassroots power of change to protect their generation and future generations
Explained how to help clean storm drains, streets & sidewalks in Sharon (Rory McGregor)
December 2020 (planned)
Zoom Demonstration: Beth Rodio shows how efficient (time- and energy-wise), induction cooking demonstration
Tree-planting activity by SSC Youth (Aneeza Ahmad)